Saturday, April 12, 2008

Obama in Bloomington

Ah, my poor neglected blog. Maybe this post will breathe some life into you.

Obama was in Bloomington today for a semi-surprise visit. He was traveling from Columbus to Terre Haute, and made a stop at the Women's Little 500 race. We arrive about five minutes before he stepped off the bus, but still managed to wrangle some excellent views. I even got to shake his hand!


After leaving the bus and walking the crowd, he presumably gave a speech at Armstrong Stadium prior to the race. (Alas, we were too far away to hear.) He played the crowd again before returning to the bus, then headed downtown to Nick's. The mob was so thick on Kirkwood that traffic had to be redirected, as the police were unable to keep people confined to the sidewalks.

Although he was scheduled to give a live interview for NBC at Sample Gates just after Nick's, the bus instead departed for Terre Haute. The throng of people at the Gates seemed largely unaware that he had left, despite the police announcing that he wouldn't be showing up.

I was in attendance largely to take photos, and I shot about 600 total. My new 70-200 f/4L performed admirably. I was very happy with how many of them turned out.